10 Stars and Stripes Jerseys Awarded on our Last Day of Amateur #RoadNats

Day 4 of the 2021 USA Cycling Amateur Road National Championships saw ten groups take to the criterium course in Fleming Island, Fla., on Sunday. In a nice change of events, blue skies and sunshine shone on the course all day. Today’s races took place on a technical 1-kilometer course.

The first race of the day was the Junior Women ages 13-14. Competing for a total of 30-minutes, these ladies made sure to take full advantage of their time on the course by throwing down some high-speed lap times. Veronica Scott (Boise, Idaho; Team Velosport), in a big effort at the end, kicked off the day by winning our first crit of the morning.

Next was the Junior Women 11-12. Early attacks mixed the field up quite a bit, but that didn’t bother Tessa Beebe (Boise, Idaho; BYRDS), who would go on to win big. Beebe sat on the front of the field for an entire lap and led herself out in a sprint to the finish. Beebe has already won a championship this week, and to go home with multiple medals is quite an impressive feat.

In the Junior Women 15-16 race, we saw very early attacks. In an epic sprint to the finish, Alexa Stierwalt (Cincinnati, Ohio; Ignite Racing), a highly regarded Cyclocross racer, won big. When asked about her performance, she said, “I have been dreaming about this for a really long time.” Stierwalt can be seen racing all over the country on her cyclocross bike. She also mentioned how she hopes to next year go to the world championships.

Following the 15-16 Women was the action-packed Junior Women 17-18 race, which turned into the Lux/Sideshow p/b Specialized show. In a decisive move at the beginning of the race, four riders, three from Lux/Sideshow p/b Specialized and a Twenty24 Junior Development rider, managed to get away and form a break that lapped the entire field. In a sprint finish, Kaia Schmid (Marblehead, Mass.; Lux/Sideshow p/b Specialized) won gold. In her post-race interview, she went onto say. “This means everything, and I couldn’t have done it without Makayla [MacPherson] and Olivia [Cummins].” We look forward to watching these young riders compete as a team at other events this year.

The afternoon kicked off with the Junior Men 11-12 taking to the course. Yesterday’s road race winner, Matthew Crabbe (Buford, Ga.; Mission Source Junior Devo), repeated his excellent performance and won the criterium. When asked about his back-to-back win, he said, “it feels really good to win and have my family here.” When Crabbe came through on his last lap, his family could be heard giving everything they had to cheer him on.

In Junior Men 13-14 race, Evan Guydish (Easton, Pa.; Kelly Benefit Strategies Elite) took the win after taking a solo flier! After he went off the front, the field cracked trying to go after him, with Guydish and three other riders lapping the field.

The Junior Men 15-16 field stayed together for a while until Henry Neff (Arlington, Va.; Kelly Benefits Strategies Elite) and Nathan Cusack (Chevy Chase, Md.; dcdevo Racing Academy) road off the front of the race. At 11 laps to go, the leaders were caught, and that’s when Ethan Welling (Rounds Rock, Texas; Williams Racing Academy) knew it would come down to a sprint finish for the field of 25.

The Junior Men 17-18 race had several game-changing moves that influenced the finish of the race. Winner Christian Deschamps (Cypress, Texas; Hot Tubes Junior Development Cycling Team) actively chased and attacked until a group of four formed that was able to stay away. Deschamps went on to win in the sprint with the breakaway group that helped form.

In the late afternoon, the U23 Men took to the course. They saw a very active race. Cooper Johnson (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) managed to get a hefty lead over the field. When his gap began to close, several riders tried to bridge up to him and eventually reeled Johnson back to the peloton. Lucas Bourgoyne (Houston; Hagens Berman Axeon) won the race in a six-man sprint to the finish.

The highly anticipated Amateur Men’s Cat 1 unfolded in a unique way. Several riders tried to separate the field early on, without much success. Best Buddies Racing and Elbowz Racing were on the front of the group almost the entire race, ensuring that nothing was going to go unless their riders were in it. The pace remained high enough that riders were consistently dropped lap after lap. The race ended in a sprint finish won by none other than Daniel Estevez (Coral Gables, Fla.; Best Buddies Racing), who had just won gold in our previous day’s road race.

Thank you to all of those that attended the 2021 Amateur Road National Championships. We had a terrific week watching impressive performances across the board. You can find our gallery of photos from the week on our Facebook page. Congratulations to all of our newly crowned national champions.

Complete results are listed HERE.